On The Road

Been on the road for a week now. Everything is exactly what I had imagined. Awesome people, Epic places, disasters and good times!

After leaving the coast and heading inland because the surf was flat and peak season had all the beaches packed with people, I camped in the Deua National Park and planned to head to Bendethra caves the following day. I plotted a route over the range which in theory should of only taken me an hour or two. A ranger came around to hit me for a camping fee, I told him of my plans and he insisted that I wouldn’t make it through that track. I should have listened!

Woke up to a beautiful day and kicked it off with a swim in the creek, packed up the Mule and hit the track. I decided to go the way I had planned, the track couldn’t be that bad! A few sketchy sections at the start had me on my toes but nothing extreme, I came to the bottom of a steep hill climb with a slight bend in it. Its looked ok, so I throttled and hit it at a good pace. Less then a stone throw from the top, the surface turned to sandstone with a few inches of sand on top. The Mule couldn’t hold straight, I bounced off a good size rock from one side of the track to the other and everything went pair shaped. I dropped the bike on the board side, I rolled away with out a scratch, just a corked hip from hitting the board. Fuel was leaking out of the breather hose, the board was jammed under the bike and I didn’t have the strength to lift the bike back on its wheels. I eventually got the board out and ended up sliding the bike around to point it down the hill. Using every bit of strength I had I got the Mule back on her feet and rolled back down the hill. A quick assessment of the bike and board found no damage. There was no way with out unpacking and walking all my gear up the top that I was getting up. With a bruised ego I back tracked and went the long way around to Bendethra Caves.

The next couple of days I spent exploring the caves and relaxing by the crystal clear creek. Packing up the Mule to head back to the coast to try and get some waves I noticed on the the brackets that the rear rack is bolted to had snapped off the frame. The other three mounts were just enough to hold it together so I could make it about 100klm of dirt road to Cooma to find someone with the gear to weld it up. Everything went to plan and the guys that helped me out with the bike were legends. I was back on the road by midday and everything was back on track.

On the road again, I hit up a free camp just out of Bega that night with toilets and showers, It was good to wash the dust off! Met a couple of really cool people and ended up spending the next few nights camping on the coast with Tom, riding his pushbike from Melbourne around Australia and enjoying all the adventures along the way.

Its been an insane week, if its anything to go off the rest of my journey is definitely going to be one to remember!

Keep Riding! Billy